Young people are the future

Apprenticeships at Chesterfield Borough Council

Jenny Caitlin

Learning and Development Officer

Chesterfield Borough Council

Taking on Apprentices

• Chesterfield Borough Council is committed to increasing the number of apprenticeships

• At present we have 18 apprentices in building services in craft skills

• We would like to increase the number, age range and vocational options in other services by creating apprenticeships in the future

A variety of apprentice jobs• carpentry and Joinery gas engineering• plumbing electrical• bricklaying stores

• We run a rigorous selection process and aim high

• Our apprentices have consistently won regional & national awards

It worked for us!

The Central Services Manager at the Borough Council has said :

“The apprentices are essential to the sustainability of our workforce. We train them in our policies and working practices which ensures we can maintain our team of highly skilled craftspeople

Along came the … the Skills Pledge

• We signed up and committed to up-skill our workforce to a baseline of level 2.

• We started with an NVQ Open Day in December

• So far 32 people have achieved NVQ 2

• Another 30 + are signed up on NVQs

Support from Providers

• We work with Derby Corporate College, DART, South Notts College, Swan Training and Chesterfield College to access government funded training

• We have always offered NVQs and there have been

‘pockets’ of take up in some service areas,

• we now promote, co-ordinate and monitor from HR to ensure systematic identification and take up of development needs

The future …• We are starting a Skills for Life session

• We are looking at traineeships in deprived wards

• We are looking at Level 2 qualifications in some of the hard to reach groups e.g. streetscene

• we are very, very busy

However

• Only 5% of our workforce is aged 16-25 years old

• Yet 34% of our workforce is over 51 years of age

• This could create problems in future • We older ones are passing through

• We have to develop others and enable them to create the future

Part of our commitment is to increase the number & vocational range of apprenticeships for people of all ages in other service areas We see it as instrumental in equipping tomorrow’s workforce with the right skills and qualifications to provide high quality services

We aim to integrate into our existing procedures by exploring suitable skills frameworks for vacant posts to turn them into apprenticeships. Scales 1-5

Skills Pledge

Thank you for listening

Wonderful things come from small beginnings